Gallery: Tiny drones and LEDs: future prosthetics are here

After one of her clients, ex-serviceman Ryan Seary, lost part of his left leg and left arm when clearing mines in Afghanistan, he felt psychologically prepared for the amputation due to his military training. It was everything that came next that proved most challenging, she told the audience at WIRED Health 2015. "Early on in rehab, his physio got in touch with me to say 'I have this guy and he's wrapping fur around his leg -- I don't know what to do with him, but I think you'll get on'." He told de Oliveira Barata he wanted something cool-looking, three-dimensional and removable, in case it didn't suit the occasion. "He also wanted to look down and see his toes again," said de Oliveira Barata. Seary had been wearing a common model with a microprocessor in the knee, but had already painted the "nails" to personalise it by the time the London-based designer met him.

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"It had this horrible-looking footshell so I replaced the toes with silicone, matching all the different skin tones by building the silicone one layer on top of the other. The nails were handmade, and hairs from the back of the neck were used on the toes to make it really realistic." The muscle plates were modelled using 3D programme Rhino, and worked like a clip cover. The design was inspired by whale bones, trees, shells and the ocean, with knots of trees worked into the joins.

But it was what happened once he donned the striking product out in public, that proved to de Oliveira Barata her work could have unexpected results.

"People were coming up to him and saying 'wow that's really interesting, how's it made?'" They couldn't believe the carefully crafted silicone foot wasn't real, and wanted to know how it worked. "It wasn't pity -- people were having banter with him. It was almost like he was pulling a trick on them with it." "It really was breaking down barriers and boundaries."

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Most of the clients de Oliveira Barata works with have a strong idea of what they want from their prosthetic. It becomes, as with fashion for many people, an extension of their personalities. Model Viktoria Modesta has donned some of the most striking designs, from a black lacquered spike to a white silicone design embedded with LED lights. "She expressed her individualism and her progressiveness through her prosthetic," said de Oliveira Barata. "For her it was the ultimate power dressing -- the spike leg was a dream of hers."

Another client, Veronika Pete, wanted to close the gap between her thigh and the bottom of the leg, but when that wasn't possible, de Oliveira Barata just opened up the space in the knee socket to introduce "a kind of turbine engine".

The designer has also introduced secret compartments, crystallised designs and much more to her line of fantastical limbs, fingers and toes. "It changes everything," said de Oliveira Barata. "You are very much in control of the process." Next up? A prosthetic arm that houses a drone --it will fly off, do some filming, then land back on the wearer's arm like a hawk.